People v. Cleary

11 N.Y. Crim. 199, 70 N.Y. St. Rep. 209
CourtNew York Court of Sessions
DecidedJuly 15, 1895
StatusPublished

This text of 11 N.Y. Crim. 199 (People v. Cleary) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Sessions primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Cleary, 11 N.Y. Crim. 199, 70 N.Y. St. Rep. 209 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1895).

Opinion

GRIFFITH, J.

The language used in the indictment to define the crime charged is taken from chapter 479 of the Laws of 1887, as amended by chapter 469 of the Laws of 1893, which is commonly called the “Ives Pool Law.” It therefore follows that the pleader had in his mind an offense against this particular statute while preparing the indictment. The rule does not require that the words used in the statute need be strictly pursued in an indictment (Code Cr. Broc., § 283), but the indictment is good if it follows the language of the statute defining the crime. People v. Farrell, 28 St. Rep. 43. The statute of 1893, supra, malees the offense charged in the indictment a felony, while section 351 o-f the Penal Code, describing nearly the same offense, makes it a misdemeanor. The question, under which statute is the indictment drawn? becomes an important one in considering another principle urged in the defendant’s •behalf upon the hearing. Section 351 of the Penal Code provides that any person who keeps any room, shed) tenement, booth, or building, or any part thereof, or who occupies any place upon any public or private grounds within the state with books, apparatus, or paraphernalia for the purpose of recording or registering bets or wagers, or of selling pools, and any person who records or registers bets or wagers or sells pools upon the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed, or power of endurance of man or beast, or being the owner, lessee, or occupant of any room, shed, or tenement, tent, booth or building, or part thereof, knowingly permits the same to be used or occupied for any of these purposes, or therein keeps, exhibits, or employs any device or apparatus for the purpose of recording or registering such bets or wagers, or the selling of pools, or becomes the custodian or depositary, for hire or reward, of any money, property, or thing of value staked, wagered, or pledged upon any such result, shall be punished by imprisonment for one [201]*201year, or by a fine, not exceeding $2,000, or both. In the year 1887 the legislature passed a law (chapter 479) by which the operation of this section of the Penal Code was suspended, and permitted recording or registering bets or wagers and selling pools upon the result of contests of skill, speed, and power of endurance of horses upon the race tracks and grounds on which racing is had, owned or leased or conducted by racing associations incorporated under the laws of the state of New York for the purpose of improving the breed of horses, but continued the inhibitions of the Penal Code under more severe penalties if such pool selling was conducted elsewhere than on the racetracks and grounds of such racing associations. In 1893 an amendment to the Laws of 1887 was passed, which is known as “chapter 469,” which, while it permitted pool selling and recording -and registering bets on contests -of speed and endurance-of horses upon race tracks and grounds owned, leased, or conducted by racing associations incorporated under -the laws of the state of New York for the purpose of improving the breed of horses, declared any person who should engage in such pool selling, book making, or receiving or recording bets or wagers elsewhere, to be guilty of a felony. A careful examination of chapter 469 of the Laws of 1893, and a comparison of the language of that statute with the wording of the indictment, lead me to the conclusion before stated, that the pleader had not only this particular statute in mind when preparing the bill, but followed its language in defining the crime.

The question is suggested, what effect did the Ives pool law, as amended, have upon section 351 of the Penal Code? Both statutes are general in their provisions, and whether a subsequent statute repeals a prior one in the absence of express words depends upon the intention of the legislature, and one of the tests frequently resorted to to ascertain whether there is a repeal by implication is to inquire whether the acts may both be executed without involving repugnancy of rights or remedies.

It would seem that the Ives pool law was intended to revise the then existing statutes upon the subject of pool selling and book making, and consolidate them, for by section 351 of the [202]*202Penal Code it was made unlawful for any person to register or record bets or wagers or sell pools at any time or at any place, while the Ives pool law permitted such practices on certain ■days and times upon race trades or grounds on which racing is had, owned, leased or conducted by racing associations incorporated, etc., but prohibited this species of betting and gaming elsewhere, virtually reenacting the provisions of section 351 and applying its prohibitions for all places except the race tracks and grounds aforesaid, and changing the character of the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony. It does seem that after April 22,1893, the only penal statute under which a prosecution for pool selling and book making could be made was tihe amended Ives pool law. The decisions seem to hold that, where prior laws are revised and consolidated into a new act, such act is to be deemed to contain the entire law upon the ■subject, and that a prior provision of law, which is dropped is to be regarded as repealed. In Ellis v. Paige, 1 Pick. 43, it is said:

“It is a well-settled rule that when any statute is revised, or one act framed from another, some parts being omitted, the parts omitted are not to be revived by construction, but are to be considered as annulled. To hold otherwise would be to impute to the legislature gross carelessness or ignorance, which is altogether inadmissible.”

In Bartlet v. King, 12 Mass. 537, it was held that:

“A subsequent statute, revising the whole subject-matter of a former one, and evidently intended as a substitute for it, .although it contains no express words to that effect, must on principles of law, as well as in reason and common sense, •operate to repeal the former.”

In Re New York Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 121 N. Y. 234; 30 St. Rep. 921, Judge Earl says that:

“Where two statutes relate to the same subject-matter, though not in terms repugnant and inconsistent, if the later one is plainly intended to prescribe the only rule that shall govern, it will repeal the earlier one.”

No end of precedents can be cited to sustain the principle that, when a revising statute covers the whole subject-matter [203]*203of antecedent statutes, the revising statutes virtually repeal the former enactments, without any express provision to that effect. Butler v. Russel, 3 Cliff. 251, Fed. Case. No. 2,243; Patterson v. Tatum, 3 Sawy. 164, Fed. Case No. 10,830; Daviess v. Fairborn, 3 How. 636; Norris v. Crocker, 13 How. 429; King v. Cornell, 106 U. S. 395; Heckmann v. Pinkney, 81 N. Y. 211; People v. Gold & Stock Telegraph Co., 98 id. 67; People v. Jaehne, 103 id. 182; 3 St. Rep. 11; In re Southworth, 5 Hun, 55.

; In construing statutes the following rule is laid down:

'Where a later statute contains no reference to the former statute, and defines an offense containing some of the elements constituting the offense defined in such former statute and other elements, it is a new and substantive offense.

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Bluebook (online)
11 N.Y. Crim. 199, 70 N.Y. St. Rep. 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-cleary-nysessct-1895.